PARCC Pre-ID Procedural Outline

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For the most part, you will base PARCC Pre-ID test assignments on the State Course Codes for students' scheduled courses. Follow these steps to associate test information with the appropriate courses and students. The outline also covers test assignment for students lacking scheduled courses. It concludes with steps for creating the final Pre-ID file.

Setup Prerequisites

On the NJ SMART Setup district-level page (Administration > General Setup > District District Defined > NJ SMART Setup), use the County of the District field to select the default County code where your district resides. The PARCC Pre-ID download uses this value when a student does not have an override on the NJ SMART Info or NJ PARCC Pre-ID Accommodations student-level pages.

The download uses the two-digit County code as part of the student's State Assessment Testing Site District and State Assessment Accountable District.

In the NJ PARCC Course Test Codes setup, you associate PARCC Test Codes with the State Course Codes for courses where students will be taking the selected test. For example, you would assign the ALG02 – Algebra II Test Code to all State Course Codes with students who need to take the Algebra II test (Administration > General Setup > District District Defined > NJ PARCC Course Test Codes).

• This setup is required. The PARCC Pre-ID Download determines which students get records based on a scheduled course's State Course Code having a PARCC Test Code assigned to it.
• You can assign the same Test Code to multiple State Course Codes.
• If you are associating State Course Codes for both high school and non-high school courses, we recommend you handle non-high school State Course Codes first (grades 3 through 8). This would leave your high school State Course Codes in the bottom of the list.

Assigning Tests to Students

Next, you will define the Test Format, Assessment Session Location, and Assessment Session Examiner values for students in courses for the State Course Codes you defined. eSchoolPlus lets you set up this information at the following levels: (1) District Course Catalog, (2) Building Course Catalog which overrides the District Catalog, (3) Master Schedule course-section which overrides District and Building Catalogs, and (4) student course which overrides everything.  

Start with the level that affects the most students, and work your way down the hierarchy. 

1. If you use a District Course Catalog, begin by setting up values on the NJ PARCC Course Information page for the District Catalog courses assigned to the State Course Codes you defined in Step 1. The PARCC Pre-ID download references these values for any student in your district taking the course number at any building (Scheduling > Courses > District Courses > NJ PARCC Course Information). 
   • If multiple District Catalog courses have the same PARCC setup information, you can use the Course Catalog Mass Update to update the related courses all at once (Scheduling > Utilities > Setup Mass Update > Course Catalog Mass Update). District Course Catalog courses have a Building number of -1 in your eSchoolPlus database.
   • The download uses District Catalog values when it finds no values at the student course, Master Schedule, and Building Course Catalog levels.
   • You should only define an Exclusion Reason at the District Course level if you are certain the exclusion will apply to every student taking this course throughout your district, regardless of building. Refer to Setting PARCC Test Exclusion Reasons for more information.
2. Set up values on the Building Course Catalog's NJ PARCC Course Information page for courses if you do not use a District Catalog or if a course has settings at the building level different from the setup in the District Catalog (Scheduling > Courses > Building Courses > NJ PARCC Course Information). 
   • You can use the Course Catalog Mass Update to update Building Catalog PARCC information for multiple courses if appropriate (Scheduling > Utilities > Setup Mass Update > Course Catalog Mass Update).
   • The PARCC Pre-ID download uses Building Catalog values when it finds no values at the student course and Master Schedule levels. If there is no Building Catalog value, the download uses the District Course Catalog.
   • You should only define an Exclusion Reason at the Building Course level if you are certain the exclusion applies to every student taking the course in the building, regardless of course-section. Refer to Setting PARCC Test Exclusion Reasons for more information.
3. Set up values on the Master Schedule's NJ PARCC Course Information page for course-sections where settings differ from the Building or District Catalog (Scheduling > Courses > Course Sections > NJ PARCC Course Information).
   • You can use the Master Schedule District-Defined Page Mass Entry utility to list course-sections and update PARCC fields in a quick-entry format (Scheduling > Utilities > Setup Mass Update > Master Schedule Mass Update). This option lets you enter different values for each listed course-section, then save all the entries at once.
   • You can use the Master Schedule Mass Update to update PARCC Information for multiple course-sections if appropriate (Scheduling > Utilities > Setup Mass Update > Master Schedule Mass Update). Use this option to apply the same values to a group of courses.
   • The PARCC Pre-ID download uses the Master Schedule values when it finds no values at the student course level. If there is no Master Schedule value, the download looks next to the Building Course Catalog, then the District Catalog.
   • You should only define an Exclusion Reason at the Master Schedule level if you are certain the exclusion applies to every student in the course-section. Refer to Setting PARCC Test Exclusion Reasons for more information.
4. If a specific student needs PARCC values differing from the course values, update the student's NJ PARCC Student Overrides page for the course (Scheduling > Student Schedules > Schedule Entry > click Course-Section description > District-Defined panel > NJ PARCC Student Overrides).
   • You can use the Student Course District-Defined Mass Update utility to update these fields for a group of students. You can select the students to update based on Demographic or Master Schedule criteria. This way you can apply the same values to a group of students in the same Homeroom, for instance, without being limited to students in a specific course-section (Scheduling > Utilities > Setup Mass Update > Master Schedule Mass Update).
   • In the PARCC Pre-ID download, the student course values override every other level.
5. If you need to assign PARCC test information to a student with no scheduled courses, you can do so using the student-level PARCC Test Selection Override page (Registration > Entry & Reports > Student District Defined > PARCC Test Selection Override).

Additional Student Prerequisites

 Update the student's specific PARCC testing accommodations using Registration > Entry & Reports > Student District Defined > NJ PARCC Pre-Id Accommodations. 

• If this page is not saved for a student, the download uses default values provided in the file layout/mapping section.
• For field-level validation rules related to Pre-ID testing accommodations, refer to the Notes in the file layout/mapping section.
• Important: If you track Testing County, District, or Building on the NJ PARCC Pre-ID Accommodations page for a given student, you should track all three fields on this page. We recommend this to ensure you get the expected download results in the student's PARCC Pre-ID record.

PARCC Pre-ID Procedures

1. Run the PARCC Pre-ID option with the Download box checked. Refer to the Field Descriptions section for information on the page prompts (State Center > New Jersey > NJ PARCC Pre-ID).
2. Review the error log that appears on your homepage (NJ PARCC Pre-ID Log) and fix data as necessary. You can also review the downloaded data in the NJ Student Summary (Student Center > NJ Student Summary).
3. Re-run the PARCC Pre-ID download using the same prompts as in Step 10 as many times as you need to make sure all errors are resolved. Check the Update Existing Records box if the download should update previously downloaded records with the most recent data from eSchoolPlus.
4. Run the PARCC Pre-ID option with the Extract box checked (State Center > New Jersey > NJ PARCC Pre-ID).
5. The PARCC PRE-ID file is created in your report directory. The file name includes the School Year and Date/Time you ran the file.